A long weekend of electrifying performances, speaker fuzz and massive crowds came to an end Sunday.
Even with a less-than-ideal weather forecast, concertgoers flocked to Atlanta’s Central Park for the third and final day of Shaky Knees. Temperatures hovered in the 70s and low 80s all day, but a 40% chance of scattered storms had threatened to cut a few setlists short.
Dedicated fans were rewarded with a packed schedule of 20 acts spread across the festival’s four stages. The last day’s headliner, indie rock stalwarts My Morning Jacket, joined by other established acts and up-and-coming artists, including Coin, Band of Horses, Death Cab for Cutie, The Happy Fits, Khruangbin and Pup.
Sunday was also the last chance attendees had this year to enjoy the fest’s wide array of food, browse merch tables, splurge on a premium experience and marvel at some interactive displays.
Unlike last year’s Shaky Knees, which took place in October due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the fest won’t return to Atlanta until spring next year.
Stephen Day
A small but spirited crowd gathered to watch a Georgia boy return home. Stephen Day, a singer-songwriter now based in Nashville, said he was “very happy to be here back in my home state of Georgia” before opening his set with a funky tune called “All This Space.”
Day never stuck with one sound for too long. The fast-paced, groovy opener gave Day opportunities to get the crowd moving, but he slowed things down with “Back of My Hand,” a blues-tinged number where he showed off his falsetto — and some restraint. The song would continuously build up momentum, but Day and his band would always keep the energy in check, never letting a tasty guitar lick overpower the song or a cymbal crash linger longer than necessary.
Day cites John Mayer and Glen Campbell as among his influences, and he did them justice throughout his set. He covered Campbell’s “Southern Nights” and even forayed into country at one point, performing a mashup of Josh Turner’s “Your Man” and his original tune “Hey Lady” to great effect.
Day’s band left him alone on stage for his intimate performance of “Autumn’s Song,” a ballad filled with regret for a relationship that fell apart. It may be the peak of springtime, but Day’s somber guitar-plucking and crooning voice made that easy to forget. It’s unclear when Day will return to Georgia again, but anyone who saw his set will happily welcome him back.
Colony House
The four members of Colony House walked into the Peachtree stage to the zany “Tequila” by The Champs, giving off a wacky, off-the-wall energy the band was prepared to continue. Colony House, an alternative rock band from Franklin, Tennessee, gave an eclectic performance featuring everything from singalong choruses to headbanging rap rock with sludgy guitar riffs.
Contrary to its name, opener “Take It Slow” was driven by a pumping bass drum that pulsed until the entire crowd was moving. Other tracks, such as the catchy single “You & I,” featured frontman Caleb Chapman’s voice bending with the guitar line, blending perfectly.
Bassist Parke Cottrell took over singing duties to lead the crowd through the Ramones song “Blitzkrieg Bop” and it’s timeless “Ay, Oh, let’s go” chant. When Chapman took back the mic, he bounced around the stage during the rapped verses of “O YA.” Chapman would frequently hop around the stage and switch between microphones to pitch-shift his voice.
While the band didn’t do it often, Colony House is capable of turning the dial down. Chapman, who took the stage by by himself for one song, started off by saying, “This is why we play music, to feel a little bit less alone in the world.” Anyone who has been to a concert since the onset of COVID has heard words like that before from performers, but it was a fitting introduction to the slow-paced and anthemic “Moving Forward.” The rest of the band didn’t get a break for long, joining Chapman at the end to sing the last chorus together.
Dirty Honey
All it takes is one glance to figure out what Dirty Honey is all about. Singer Marc LaBelle strutted on stage wearing aviator-style sunglasses, a black-rimmed hat and a bandana tied around his neck, and the rest of the band’s outfits couldn’t have come from any decade outside the ‘70s.
The Los Angeles-based hard rock band is the modern version of their idols — Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin with a dash of Def Leppard — and their live show doesn’t hold back. The first two songs, “Gypsy and “Break You,” got off to a roaring start, with hard-hitting riffs that are tailor-made for rock radio airwaves. LaBelle capped off the latter song showing off the full range of his pipes in one prolonged high note.
It was a subtle moment, but Dirty Honey gave Georgia a shout-out while performing “The Wire.” Instead of singing that “L.A. kisses” blow his mind, LaBelle said it’s “Georgia peaches” who drive him wild. A few tracks later, “Tied Up” featured one of the best grooves hard rock has to offer, and it’s as catchy as any other hard rock classic.
Every band member got a moment to shine during the hourlong set, including lengthy solos. While “L.A. kisses” might’ve gotten snubbed, their home state got some love later in the show during “California Dreaming.” In a crowd-pleasing moment, the band allowed the audience to choose between a Prince song and an AC/DC song near the end of their show.
“This one is for y’all. Make some (expletive) noise,” LaBelle yelled as the band started “Shoot to Thrill.” No disrespect to Prince, but there’s no better band to kill an AC/DC cover than Dirty Honey.
Coin
This Nashville pop rock band quickly separated themselves from many Shaky Knees acts. From the opening synth sting to the distorted vocal filter, opener “Chapstick” made it clear that this band isn’t afraid to mix synthetic and live instruments in creative and catchy ways.
Coin, usually stylized in all caps, ran through their catalog of bops for a packed crowd. All four band members weren’t shy while on stage, dancing around in wild, unpredictable fashion during many high-energy moments. Lead vocalist Chase Lawrence had jittery dance moves, guitarist Joe Memmel would run in place while strumming away and drummer Ryan Winnen would make every face imaginable from behind the kit.
The band rarely brought the energy down, but the moments they did always paid off. During “Cemetery,” Lawrence would play piano with one hand while using his free hand to gesture to the crowd to make some noise. During “Malibu 1992,” the group let a synthetic drum and bass pattern carry the song until the song’s climactic bridge, when every instrument turns up the volume.
It only lasted a minute, but the band threw in a frenetic cover of OutKast’s “Hey Ya,” giving some love to one of Atlanta’s greats. Coin closed out their set with some of their most popular songs, including “Talk to Much” and “Crash My Car,” holding the crowd’s attention until the last guitar chord.
Death Cab for Cutie
My Morning Jacket may be the indie rock group headlining the final day of Shaky Knees, but another veteran group arguably has just as much clout. Death Cab for Cutie put on quite the show, becoming Sunday’s first act to fully pack the Peachtree stage, the surrounding field and every area within earshot.
It took mere seconds for the crowd to recognize majority of the songs, including the opener “I Will Possess Your Heart.” The song’s bassline and piano hook are burned into most fans’ memory, and the song lives up to its title.
The five men who make up the Seattle band all wore black or some other understated, muted color, and while they probably weren’t the festival’s flashiest group, they might have been the most infectious. Each song has plenty of melodic passages that only grow catchier with time.
Take “The Ghost of Beverly Drive” as an example, which has a standout chorus and rhythmic progression. “Doors Unlocked and Open” also has a great, driving bassline that supports the song as singer Ben Gibbard punched through the mix with the song’s sparse lyrics.
Between songs, Gibbard had some much-needed advice to the crowd who have been drinking alcohol and rushing between stages for hours.
“You all drinking enough water out there,” Gibbard, who is 45 years old, said. “Take it from your Uncle Gibbs, you’ve got to take your salt as well. You have to have electrolytes.”
The highlight of the entire set was Gibbard, standing by himself on stage with just an acoustic guitar. He strummed and sang the band’s most popular song, “I Will Follow You Into the Dark,” but he wasn’t alone for long. For every word, he was joined by a few thousand backup singers as the crowd lent him their voices.
Pup
If you want to experience sonic whiplash, go to a Pup show right after seeing Death Cab For Cutie. Mind you, that’s not explicitly a bad thing.
Pup, a group of punk rockers from Toronto, turned the energy up to 11 with the opener “Kids,” a frenetic song that’s sure to wake up anyone tired after several hours of music. It also apparently works as a gathering call for all the outcasts.
“What’s up, freaks? I think we’ve gathered all the losers together at Shaky Knees,” frontman Stefan Babcock said with glee.
It didn’t take long before a mosh pit formed and several people took their turn crowd-surfing. It only took about five songs before someone lost their phone, but some good Samaritans took a break from moshing to bring it to Babcock’s attention. “Thank you for losing your phone in the pit,” Babcock joked, before saying the venue’s security would help return it to its owner.
Pup doesn’t really have slow songs, and the ones they do are misleading. “Scorpion Hill” starts with a slow, quiet passage, which lasts about 20 seconds. Then the entire band quadruples the song’s tempo and break into a blazing assault of guitar shredding and blasting drums. It, alongside the equally as breakneck “Reservoir,” were clearly crowd favorites.
Unfortunately, anyone trying to make it to the main stage in time to see the final day’s headliner, My Morning Jacket, had to leave this show a few songs early. However, it’s a safe bet that Pup didn’t save anything slow or tame for the end of their set — it’s not in their nature.
My Morning Jacket
My Morning Jacket was the best group possible to cap off a wild weekend of music that featured artists from all corners of rock. After all, the veteran group’s sound pretty much encompasses every subgenre and style — from blues to experimental to psychedelic to country to jam band worship.
The festival’s main stage and surrounding field were packed with thousands who waited to see the Louisville, Kentucky, band as the final headliner of this year’s event, and they weren’t going to be disappointed. From the opening guitar lick and bassline of opener “One Big Holiday,” the crowd was hooked.
Each song came with its own flavor. “Love Love Love,” the band’s most recent single, features a syncopated guitar and a clear Caribbean-influence. “Never in the Real World” embraces blues rock, with down-tempo rifts and crooning. “Holdin On to Black Metal” has an infectious guitar rift and a sing-along chorus in stark contrast to the macabre, devilish music referenced in the title.
The band’s performance of “Victory Dance” is hard to put into words. Frontman Jim James donned a cape, dangled a large sampler from his neck and started repeating a high-pitched chant that sounded like a trumpet if played by an alien. That’s my best attempt, but the song and visual was quirky and weird in the best of ways.
James mentioned at one point that he spent some of his childhood in Jonesboro, just south of Atlanta. “We are just beyond thrilled to just be back with people again,” he said, referencing you-know-what.
My Morning Jacket has no problem coming up with riffs or catchy, bending solos. The band’s two-hour setlist consisted of 18 songs, meaning the average song was more than six minutes long. At least half of that time was spent interpolating upon the song’s main hook or melody, with each musician getting their turn. “Feel You” featured a piano passage, bass riffing and a lengthy guitar solo before it came to an end, while “Gideon” went through multiple jam-session-like phases during its second half.
One lyric that didn’t slip past attendees was a normally innocuous line in “Steam Engine.” James made sure to give the passage, “And god-damn those shaky knees,” and he was met with a round of cheers. “Wordless Chorus” was another highlight, with a chorus that features James making a bunch of “oohs,” “ahs” and other noises.
Like the others, the band’s last song bended and morphed through its lengthy runtime. “Touch Me I’m Going to Scream, Part 2,” began with synth gurgles and playful keyboard notes and ended with soaring guitars and frantic drums. It took listeners on a journey, and it’s not one they’ll soon forget.
